Lost Child, Found Child
by royslady51
Summary: An abused, crippled 13-year-old girl is swept by an unknown force from her universe into the 10th Doctor's. There are a couple of major differences between Mary's universe and the 10th's: One, in Mary's he's a fictitious character and two...about 1/10% of
1. U-Turn

Summary: An abused, crippled young girl is swept by an unknown force from her universe into the 10th Doctor's. There are a couple of major differences between Mary's universe and the 10th's: One, in Mary's he's a fictitious character and two...about 1/10% of humans in Mary's World are Telepathic...and Mary is in that 10%.

A/N: For the purpose of this story, Rose will not be separated from the Doctor.

A/N: For the purpose of this story, Rose will not be separated from the Doctor. There are a couple of major differences between Mary's World and the 10th's: One, in Mary's he's a fictitious character and two...about 1/10% of humans in Mary's World are Telepathic...and Mary is in that 10%.

WARNING #1: This is an ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. Do not attempt to shove canon into it since that will just prove you're an idiot in public. If you can review without pushing your narrow-minded views into it, good. Do so. If you are a canon fanatic who always insists everyone does fics YOUR way, you need to remember the very first person to break rules of that nature is always the Doctor. _**He wouldn't approve of you at all.**_

Warning #2: Swearing, Angst and possible Depression/Anger Triggers exist in this fic. If in doubt, don't read.

**Lost Child, Found Child**

by

Royslady51

**1. U-Turns.**

The unexpected turnabout was so abrupt it flung both Rose and the Doctor nearly to the wall of the console room, stunning Rose with a crack on the head that the Doctor didn't notice right off, as he was scrambling to find out why they'd not gone into the vortex as he'd intended. After a moment, he turned from the console and noticed her rubbing her head. He checked her, but there was no bump, just a sore spot.

For a first voyage in a new body, this wasn't starting out well at all. Rose had the sense to stay where she was but the Doctor was tossed on his tail a second time when the Timeship landed with an insistent _thump_.

"Why the bloody hell are you going _straight back to London_...and why Hyde Park?" He wanted to know of his timeship. She ignored him, merely opening her doors herself in response.

Rose got up, went over to the doors and poked her head out cautiously. There was a young girl sitting on a nearby bench, staring at her in disbelief that was rapidly changing to awe. "I must be dreaming again." She told Rose softly. "You're not real."

"Yes, I _am_, actually. Why would you say _that_ anyway?"

"Where's all the cameras and stuff then, if you're real? And the rest of the set and th' cast? 'Cuz everyone knows Rose Tyler is just a character on television played by Billie Piper, so's the Doctor only sometimes he's played by Chris Eccleston and other times by David Tennant, at least the episodes with Rose in them...and that the TARDIS is a sometimes a prop or sometimes just an image on CGI. I'm not stupid you know. Just cuz I can't walk right doesn't mean I'm dumb, Billie." She looked up at a movement behind the actress and nodded. "Yeah. And _he's_ David Tennant. You English are assholes, you know?"

"You're bit young to be using language like that, aren't you?" The man asked her.

"And you're a bit old to be playing pranks on kids, but you're doing it anyway." She retorted. "I'm not stupid enough to trust you, you know. I know how adults are, got that beat into me years ago...cripple girls can't run away so we take what we have to...an' it'd be lovely if the character you play was real, _but he's not_. If he was maybe I'd have a grown up I could trust because the character is an alien and he doesn't 'dance'..._which means he'd let me alone that way_...but that's never going to happen, you're _not_ going to trick me into thinkin' that the Doctor is a real person, so just lay off. _Prick_." She glared at his expression of growing confusion. "And there weren't any episodes with 10th that was in set in Birmingham, Alabama, so I don't know what you're trying to pull, but can we say '_miserable, epic, cascading failure_'?"

"You're in London." Rose said quietly.

The girl was giving away more about herself with every angry word and the young woman wanted to kill whoever had treated the child like that. The expression on the Doctor's face made her nervous.

He was outraged and horrified on the child's behalf, he had _understood_ very well what the girl had meant...but talking wasn't going to convince her he _was_ who he was. A more direct method was called for. Besides, she had very clearly run into some kind of anomaly...this had to be checked into.

"No, I'm _not_. You're not tricking me. I don't believe you."

The man she believed was Tennant approached her with a determined, if quite compassionate expression on his face and she drew back in panic, even taking a swing at him with one of her crutches. He caught it gently and handed both it and the other one to Rose, then the Doctor simply picked the struggling, sobbing, terrified girl up and hauled her into the TARDIS.

**Dreams and Hallucinations**

She stilled, her struggles stopping as her surroundings became clear. She shook her head in disbelief, reaching hesitantly for one of the supports...then drawing her hand back.

"You can touch her. I really _am_ the Doctor, you know. I'm not going to hurt you and neither is Rose."

"I'm dreaming you, I guess. I don't dream about good people much. I wasn't expecting to have a nice dream. I've probably got another fever. All adults hurt kids, so a fever dream makes sense. Still, _I can enjoy it while it lasts_." And she simply laid her head on his shoulder and let tears drip down her face. "Kids like me, _need_ dreams like you." She whispered.

He met Rose's eyes over the girl's head. "Close the doors, Rose. Let me get her to the infirmary and see what I can do about her feet." He nodded at the twisted, turned in on themselves messes at the ends of her legs. He recognized the disasters that were her limbs as a birth defect and knew he could easily fix it: A few moments with nanogenes would do the trick. "You'll still need the crutches for a bit, while you're learning to walk, but afterward, we can throw them away. And once we throw them away, Rose an' me will teach you to _run_. No more trying to move about on the top sides of your ankles."

"I hate it when I get a good dream." She told him, still crying.

"Why?"

"Because they don't last and when I wake up..." She turned her face into the chest of the dream-Doctor and sobbed. "Nightmares don't change as much when I wake up, cuz it's just a different nightmare, only I'm awake for that one. And I'm used it. I wish you were real, but you're not. But I'll take what I can get cuz I'm not gonna get hurt in this one."

The Doctor's face was a study in unhappiness. "And when I prove it's real? What then?"

"You're not."

"See, that's the thing, this isn't your universe of origin." He told her gently. "Right then, let's get your feet fixed, shall we? My nanogenes will fix that right up."

Rose followed them to the infirmary and helped get her on the exam table. "In dreams, you can't touch things, or you can, but you don't feel skin to skin contact. Think about it? If you get attacked, it's the horror you feel that makes it bad, because regular dreams can't actually touch you."

"So?"

Rose took the Doctor's cool hand and laid its palm in the girl's own. _"What do you feel?"_

**:WHO:**

_**Real**_

Mary's eyes went wide, staring at his hand gently holding her own. Her gaze flew to the gentle brown eyes and the soft smile on the Doctor's face, then to Rose's who held her other hand for a moment before returning her eyes to his, begging him to be real, for him not to be just another shattered dream.

"It's okay, I'm real, she's real, the TARDIS is _very_ real..._you're safe_. Even if I knew where you'd come from, I'd never take you back to it. _No way_. I won't give you back to people who hurt you. And if I _can_ let you stay with me and Rose, _I will._ The TARDIS is checking your Time Lines, okay? She can see _so_ _far_, so much further than _I_ can."

"I know." She turned her head to look at Rose, gripping the bottled blonde's hand tightly. "I told you, you're a TV show and I've seen all the episodes...all the way since First and it's on your 11th, just now." She told him quietly. "I know better than to say anything, any decent Whovian would know better. My foster home's parents had the whole set and we got to watch when we weren't contributing."

"All of it?"

"'Fraid so. One good thing about it."

"What's that?"

"Nothin' to hide...and I can explain why you're such a prick to her, to her, sometimes. Self-defense, really."

"That'd be nice. What's your name?" Rose spoke.

"Mary Allison Baker."

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"_How could they?"_ The Doctor breathed in horror, finally understanding just how long she'd been used and tormented all because she _couldn't_ run off or get out of harm's way. "You're a baby!"

"Not so young as all that, or so I was told. Said it was all I was good for. Couldn't work could I? Had to _contribute_."

"They lied." The Doctor's voice was harsh. "You are so much better than _that_."

"Yes, you are." Rose confirmed. "He'll show you how to be, the same way he showed me how to be a better person." Rose didn't see the startled glance he gave her. "Showed _me_ how to be a good woman, didn't he, yeah? Took a chav from the estates and made me sommat decent, didn't he? Just cuz I trusted him. You have to learn to trust him."

"I don't think I know what that is anymore, _if I ever did_."

"Then you learn." The Tenth Doctor told her quietly. He cocked his head, "What's a 'Whovian'?"

"Your fanbase. You've got millions and millions of fans. Both of you. Some folks like one regeneration or another more than others but we _all_ get it. And most of us have seen every episode...though a few people just watch enough to get a handle on individual personalities."

Rose quirked her lips, being human, she knew very well what a fangirl was. "Don't go overboard, Mary. This is real here."

Mary was getting sleepy-eyed from the medicines he'd given her along with the nanogenes and the feel of his hand combing through her hair gently. Nothing else, except holding her hand, though. "Some of it's online, Rose. Called Doctor Who...just look on Netflix or the BBC website."

"I don't know if they'll have it _here_, but I'll look." Rose promised the drowsy youngster.

He was being very, _very_ gentle with her: Alien he might be, but he knew he still _looked_ like an adult male human and she had a lifetime of nasty experiences with the very worst of them. He hated people messing with kids at any time, but this? That was just sick and for the first time in a very long time, not only did the Doctor sincerely want to kill someone, he _knew_ beyond all doubt that such a killing would be utterly _justified_. The problem was that he couldn't reach the people that had done this to her.

"Are you _sure_ I'm not dreaming?"

"Very sure."

Mary watched his eyes uncertainly for a moment, until Rose spoke. "Doctor, let her see _you_. Not your current self, not the _body_, _you_. She need to be _sure_. I don't think you understand what effect that has on those of us that stay with you, need you."

"Good or bad?"

"Good. _Excellent_, in fact. Most of your companion issues of the past could have been fixed with that one thing...just a _glimpse_ of who you are."

"All right." He nervously returned his attention to the youngster, allowing what he was to shine out through his eyes because he trusted Rose. He immediately noted when she really _saw_ him, watched as she stared in disbelief and then...she relaxed and rolled to her side, facing him.

"_Doctor_." She whispered, and he could hear sheer _wonder_ in her young voice.

"Yes." He flushed a bit. Was this how Rose responded...only hid it better because she was older?

"For real." There was pure joy in the child's voice, manner and eyes.

"Yes." He couldn't stop himself, he had to smile back at her.

She was asleep a few moments later, trusting him because he was really the Doctor, who was not the dangerous kind of man, not a human one, anyway. He didn't do that with humans and wouldn't hurt her. She was asleep before the first crack in her shielding appeared and didn't notice.

The Doctor did, barely hearing the soft mental turbulence, but he did notice.

What in hell _was_ that?

**:TBC:**


	2. Let Him In

**Let Him In**

The adults stayed close to the sleeping child as she rested, both deep in thought. He shuddered slightly as he recalled the moment he'd understood just exactly _what_ had been done to her and the reasons for it. He _hated_ the hopeless acceptance he and Rose had heard in her voice when she had explained. He was also pretty sure that much of what she'd told them were what she perceived as 'facts' or hard learned lessons and had repeated them by rote...as if she'd had to repeat them many times to many people.

_Just cuz I can't walk right doesn't mean I'm dumb._

_I'm not stupid enough to trust you, you know. I __**know**__ how adults are, got that beat into me years ago...cripple girls can't run away so we take what we __**have**__ to..._

He recalled his first sight of her twisted feet as he'd picked her up and her ground-length skirts had fallen to the side. He'd had people fear him, certainly. Tons of them...but not _children_ and not for the _those_ reasons. He felt his gorge rising at the thought.

"_Kids like me **need** dreams like you."_

_I wish you were real, but you're not. But I'll take what I can get cuz I'm not gonna get **hurt** in this one."_

_Said it was all I was good for. Couldn't work could I? Had to contribute._

_**Contribute? **_

He smelt salt and moisture and looked up. On the other side of the girl he met Rose's tear filled eyes with his own, overly moist ones. She wasn't the only one with wet cheeks. "Don't even look." She said quietly. "We're _keeping_ her." Her voice had a finality in it he had only heard from her once before and recently at that.

"I'll make sure there's no cracks or fissures in the universal fabric. If there are, the TARDIS and I will close them...with her on this side of the Wall, with us. _Yeah_, we're keepin' her." The Doctor answered softly.

He kept cocking his head, listening for a _not quite there_ sound he _almost_ heard. It was driving him batty.

_**Better put her in her room, then? With a wheeled chair and better crutches than she has. She'll need them for now. I put it next to Rose's...and there's a Physical Therapy area on the other side of it. She'll have some work cut out for her for a while. And so will you, my Thief. It's the girl's mental voice you are hearing. In her universe, from what I'm picking up from her, about 10% of the human population are fully tele-empathic. She sensed the danger you can be when you have to be. Her telepathic ability reached out to me when you brought her into my console room. That is why she calmed. **_

"_When did your mental voice take on Rose's speech patterns?" _He asked his ship, got what he could only describe as a _snigger_ in reply.

_**Do you realize you're the first two responsible adults she's ever met? She will base what she **_**should****_ be by your examples. Teach her well. You and my Wolf will be the first adults that she has ever been able to trust and it will not be an easy road for her. She will see the potential for threats in the smallest, most innocent things. Keep your temper under control, she will frighten easily._**

"_Yes, I know she will, poor lass." _He answered his ship as he scooped the sleeping child up and headed toward the room that the TARDIS indicated had been prepared for her. It had a very large window through which the vortex could be seen when she woke.

**:WHO:**

Mary woke in the most comfortable bed she'd ever been in after the best dream of her young life. Slowly, her eyes opened and she stared out the window on the opposite side of the room from the bed. It took a few moments for Mary to realize what she was looking at. Hesitantly, she sat up and looked around, finally doing what almost any Whovian from a telepathic universe would have done...she lay the palm of her small hand against the wall and spoke. _TARDIS?_

**_Yes child, it's all real. You're safely in a room of my design and I just told the Doctor and Rose that you've woken. He will be at your door in a moment. I told him of your telepathic ability and he wants to make sure you've been well trained..._self_-taught are you? Well, he will teach you properly then. _**She paused and checked with Rose**. _Rose is starting breakfast. She wants to know, how do you like your new feet, Mary?_**

The girl pulled away her covers and stared at the pair of pretty, perfectly normal feet she now had. Her answer was wordless, sent in a very complicated _flood_ of emotion to the great ship that cradled her now, emotion that the TARDIS passed on to both her Time Lord and her Wolf. When the Tenth Doctor opened the girl's bedroom door he was treated to a wet face and thin arms reaching for him. Most of the emotions were varying kinds of joy combined with disbelief, but the strongest was the feeling of safety. She knew she had a sanctuary that would not be breached. She trusted him, because of who and what he was and the shields between his mind and her's, the protective mental walls that had been leaking all night, dropped.

This was the way of the Human Telepaths of her home universe. If you trusted another telepath and acknowledged the fact they outranked you, you showed it by opening your mind. She would do no less for the Doctor and the barriers between herself and the TARDIS were already down.

"I have a Bidda." She whispered. "Bidda Doctor."

"_**It's a combination of teacher, caregiver, parent and guardian. Biddia is the plural."**_

"Yes. Yes, you _do_." He told her, moving to sit beside her instead of kneeling by the bed, to put an arm around her waist and let her lean against an adult male..._in utter safety_...for the first time that Mary personally had a clear memory of. She did not mind that the thought could be seen, one did not hide from one's Bidda. Biddia couldn't fix what they didn't know about. It was part of her culture for a child to leave their mind open to _their_ acknowledged Bidda. He picked her up and took her to the kitchen where Rose was, settling the very young teen into a chair at the table and left for a moment to fetch a special kind of walker that had a seat. In order to move in it, one had to pull oneself along, forward, with one's feet. It was designed to strengthen her feet and teach her how they were really supposed to work...and it was the only way the walker would move since the brakes would lock if she tried to push with it...Mary _wasn't_ stupid, she looked it over, figured out how it would work and sighed.

She didn't protest, though. For one thing, eventually, this first step would lead to her being able to walk on her own two feet and for another...The Doctor and Rose had promised to teach her how to _run_. As that amazing thought crossed Mary's mind, the Doctor got a good look at what he actually really _meant_ to the girl and blinked tears away at the force of the emotions he caught, then ruffled her hair.

"I checked, there's no cracks or damages to the wall or the universal fabric. The few little rough spots the TARDIS located have been healed and closed properly...and Rose and I have have decided to parent you _ourselves_.

She raised her head and stared at him in _utter_ shock, wondering if he had any clue how domestic _that_ was going to be. If he hadn't, before, he did now as the many aspects of what that would probably entail crossed the child's mind along with the decision not to say anything. She wasn't at _all_ sure that he was up to it though, since his opinion of all things domestic were _quite_ well known. He also heard her make the private decision to go to Rose for most _truly_ domestic matters. She wasn't even sure he knew the difference between what was domestic and what was just _social_. Shopping wasn't domestic...it was just social..._unless_ you were going after groceries because _that_ was part of _household maintenance_ and as far as she knew he had no problem with _that_ sort of shopping. Household maintenance, in all it's forms was definitively 'domestic' in nature.

She cleared her throat and met Rose's eyes...saw the laughter there and dropped her eyes to her plate. She didn't see the Doctor flush and stare at the top of her head, or hear the TARDIS tell Rose what he'd picked up from her, but she did hear the Timeship chuckling.

The Tenth Doctor sighed, but this child wasn't someone he could break a promise to...her soul and mind was far to fragile for that. He'd just have to buck up and accept that his life-long avoidance of domesticity was _over_. He'd manage, he supposed. He always did.


End file.
